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Comedy and Fun Excerpts

When you think about fun, what is the first word that comes into your mind? Is it nuns? No? Most likely you never met the nuns in my novel, or you had to put up with nuns as teachers for twelve years in Catholic School, or both. As one person who read my novel put it, I never knew any nuns like that. To which I replied, what is it about the word fiction that you don’t understand?

Though I have written a book about three former nuns who do things most nuns would never think about doing, it isn’t from experience. I have never been a nun, since I am a man, and I have no background as a Catholic. My dad was a minister, and both my parents’ dads were ministers of the hellfire and brimstone Jesus-died-for-your-sins variety, which probably explains more than never having attended Catholic School. So as you can see, when I took that writing class and the teacher told me to write about what I knew, I didn’t listen to a word the teacher said.My nuns listen to others about as well as I do. Coito endured twelve years in Catholic School, though I’m sure the nuns who taught her prayed every night that she would go to a public school and leave them in peace. She usually did well in school, but even if she had flunked every subject, I’m sure they would have passed her to the next grade just to get rid of her. Let me give you an example of why the nuns were happy to get rid of her.

One of our goals in Catholic School was to save the Pagan Babies. For only five dollars, which seemed like a pretty good deal to me, we could get a Pagan Baby baptized and sent to heaven. They even showed us short movies of Catholic missionaries in Africa baptizing the Pagan babies to spur us on. We could buy a saint stamp for ten cents to paste in a book, and when the book was full, we could redeem the book for a Pagan Baby, whom we could name on our Pagan Baby Adoption Certificate. When we were first told about this opportunity, I rushed home to my parents and said, “Guess what, I’m going to have a baby, and she’s black,” which would have given my dad multiple heart attacks were it not for the biological impossibility of my statement at that tender age.

These Catholic equivalents to S&H Green Stamps prepared us for the future because they taught us how to buy on the installment plan. I asked our teacher if our book were half full, if we could we redeem it for half a Pagan Baby, but she said no, so there was always a rush to fill the book before the Pagan Baby Awards Day ceremony. There was a poster with Jesus in a pastoral scene at the front of the classroom and every time someone adopted a Pagan Baby, we got to add a child to the poster. By the end of the school year, Jesus had become the most prolific father in history.

In a way I thought the pagans were lucky. They automatically went to limbo and didn’t risk going to Hell until the missionaries baptized them. I could just imagine tribes fleeing the missionaries to make sure they kept their spot reserved in limbo. When my mother told me that our dog had gone to “Doggie Heaven,” I wondered whether unbaptized pagan dogs went to “Doggie Limbo.”

After realizing that once the Pagan Babies were baptized, they too would need a Catechism to guide them along the straight and narrow path, I wrote K’s Catechism for Cannibals in perfect Palmer Method penmanship, providing dozens of important questions and answers as well as prayers written just for the pagan cannibals.

Q: Is it better to cook a Virgin Martyr or a Heretic?A: It is better to cook a Virgin Martyr than a Heretic because the Virgin Martyr is sweeter to the palate and the meat is softer to cook than that of a Heretic.Q: Should a converted Cannibal woman continue to walk around topless?A: A converted Cannibal should continue to walk around topless because Priests are celibate and will not be tempted.I even provided the cannibals with a prayer to say before each meal.Our Martyr, who hath been cooked, blessed be thy meat. Thy flesh be done, so thy sweet taste will fill us when we eat.I sold my literary creation to my fellow students for a dime and then contributed all my earnings to converting the Pagan Babies in Africa. Despite my altruistic intentions, when the sisters got a copy of my addition to the canon, they imposed an excessive number of penances on me. The nun who imposed the greatest guilt and fear in us was Sister Mary Margaret whom we referred to as Attilla the Nun because she behaved more like a four-foot, ten-inch tall Auschwitz prison matron than a Sister of Mercy. Some students were convinced that not only did she have eyes in the back of her head, but that the Blessed Virgin Mary had endowed her with the ability to see through walls and read our minds. It was rumored that she made extra money in the summer by training Marine Drill Sergeants, and we had no doubt that she gave every penny she made to the church. We joked that Satan would rather do battle with the Archangel Gabriel than Sister Mary Margaret because at least Satan had a chance with Gabriel. Even I watched her step around Attila the Nun.So as you can see, not all of the teachers were scared of Coito, but I’m sure even Attila the Nun had had enough of Coito by the end of the school year. If you want to read more of The Three Sisters merry adventures, you will just have to read the book.

Driving back to Washington D.C. where they
work at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Parts, the three sisters are
arrested in Tennessee. After defeating the local deputy in strip
poker, they escape from jail, and are pursued by the zealous Detective Schmuck
Hole, who has personally offered a $10,000 reward for their capture on the 700
Club. Little do they know that when the three sisters visit the Washington
Monument, their lives will change forever.

Set in 1979, The Three Sisters is a
sacrilegious satire that skewers not only organized religion, but the
government, the media, intellectuals, corporate greed and every other part of
the establishment. Maybe not the greatest story ever told, but possibly the
funniest.

“Blessed are they who read The Three
Sisters, for they shall inherit eternal laughter.” — Matthew 5:66

“The most pestilential book ever vomited
out of the jaws of Hell.” — Billy Sunday

Bryan Taylor is a double PK, a preacher’s kid of a preacher’s kid. With that legacy he faced two destinies, being an unhappy triple PK (Jubilees 17:23, “He that is born unto the son of a preacher and himself preaches shall be miserable until his dying day and suffer eternal damnation.”), or being sacrilegious and happy.

He decided to forsake the Southern Baptists for Catholicism, but when he applied to join a convent, he was rejected (sex discrimination!), so he decided to do the next best thing: write a novel about the three nuns he would most like to meet.

Bryan Taylor was born in Louisiana, grew up in Michigan and Texas, went to school in Tennessee, South Carolina and California, taught in Switzerland for a year, and has traveled to 50 countries, more than any Pope except Saint John Paul II. He now lives in California, which is one of the few places with people crazier than him.

Excerpt from THE THREE SISTERS

Chapter 1 One
of our goals in Catholic School was to save the Pagan Babies. For only five
dollars, which seemed like a pretty good deal to me, we could get a Pagan Baby
baptized and sent to heaven. They even showed us short movies of Catholic
missionaries in Africa baptizing the Pagan babies to spur us on. We could buy a
saint stamp for ten cents to paste in a book, and when the book was full, we
could redeem the book for a Pagan Baby, whom we could name on our Pagan Baby
Adoption Certificate. When we were first told about this opportunity, I rushed
home to my parents and said, “Guess what, I’m going to have a baby, and she’s
black,” which would have given my dad multiple heart attacks were it not for
the biological impossibility of my statement at that tender age.These Catholic equivalents to S&H Green
Stamps prepared us for the future because they taught us how to buy on the
installment plan. I asked our teacher if our book were half full, if we could
we redeem it for half a Pagan Baby, but she said no, so there was always a rush
to fill the book before the Pagan Baby Awards Day ceremony. There was a poster
with Jesus in a pastoral scene at the front of the classroom and every time
someone adopted a Pagan Baby, we got to add a child to the poster. By the end
of the school year, Jesus had become the most prolific father in history.In a way I thought the pagans were lucky.
They automatically went to limbo and didn’t risk going to Hell until the
missionaries baptized them. I could just imagine tribes fleeing the
missionaries to make sure they kept their spot reserved in limbo. When my
mother told me that our dog had gone to “Doggie Heaven,” I wondered whether
unbaptized pagan dogs went to “Doggie Limbo.”After realizing that once the Pagan Babies
were baptized, they too would need a Catechism to guide them along the straight
and narrow path, I wrote K’s Catechism for Cannibals in perfect Palmer Method
penmanship, providing dozens of important questions and answers as well as
prayers written just for the pagan cannibals.Q: Is it better to cook a Virgin Martyr or
a Heretic?A: It is better to cook a Virgin Martyr
than a Heretic because the Virgin Martyr is sweeter to the palate and the meat
is softer to cook than that of a Heretic.Q: Should a converted Cannibal woman
continue to walk around topless?A: A converted Cannibal should continue to
walk around topless because Priests are celibate and will not be tempted.I even provided the cannibals with a prayer
to say before each meal.Our Martyr, who hath been cooked, blessed
be thy meat. Thy flesh be done, so thy sweet taste will fill us when we eat.I sold my literary creation to my fellow
students for a dime and then contributed all my earnings to converting the
Pagan Babies in Africa. Despite my altruistic intentions, when the sisters got
a copy of my addition to the canon, they imposed an excessive number of
penances on me. The nun who imposed the greatest guilt and fear in us was
Sister Mary Margaret whom we referred to as Attilla the Nun because she behaved
more like a four-foot, ten-inch tall Auschwitz prison matron than a Sister of
Mercy. Some students were convinced that not only did she have eyes in the back
of her head, but that the Blessed Virgin Mary had endowed her with the ability
to see through walls and read our minds. It was rumored that she made extra
money in the summer by training Marine Drill Sergeants, and we had no doubt
that she gave every penny she made to the church. We joked that Satan would
rather do battle with the Archangel Gabriel than Sister Mary Margaret because
at least Satan had a chance with Gabriel. Even K watched her step around Attila
the Nun.